


TGIF

by Thorne



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-13
Updated: 2010-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 05:39:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorne/pseuds/Thorne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A friend in need is a friend indeed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	TGIF

**Author's Note:**

> For Squeemu, the cleverest emu I know.

Cloud fidgeted, sighed, fidgeted again, and for lack of anything better to do, shifted his feet as he waited. Ahead of him, the long line of Shinra troopers waiting to use the phones stretched onward, sprinkled intermittently with second and third class SOLDIERS who cut in at their own leisure. Five phones for more than five hundred people at any given time. Everything Zack had ever said about Shinra inefficiency rang true at the moment; he'd been waiting in line for over three hours when the phones first opened up. There wasn't even a chance to go to the bathroom.

He stared longingly at the vending machines, so close and yet so far. At the end of the hallway, a group of SOLDIERS in civvies came through the swinging doors. One of them broke away from the tight cluster and came up to Cloud, tousling his hair.

"Hey kiddo," Zack said and slung one arm around Cloud's shoulders. "Hate to tell you, but I doubt you're gonna make this line before the phones close. Wanna go get some dining hall chow instead? They're closing in five."

Cloud's stomach growled—God, that was a testament to how long he'd been here, that he could get hungry for dining hall slop—but he shook his head. "I gotta try, Zack. My mom doesn't have a phone. She waits in the general store for me to call."

"Can you try next week?" Zack asked. "Or go into the city and use the regular phones there?"

Cloud shrugged. "We work out the schedule by letter, but mail takes forever to get to Nibelheim." He ignored the other suggestion; even if he had a weekend leave, he couldn't afford to use his gil. The ten minutes on the Shinra phone-cards issued once a month would have to do.

Zack looked speculatively at the line and the row of occupied phone booths. "C'mere." He hustled Cloud out of the line and shoved him behind a fake potted palm tree. "Okay, wait a few seconds but keep your eyes open and make it quick."

"Zack, it's okay, you really don't--"

But Zack had already loped away towards the phones. About ten seconds later, sudden and extreme violence broke out.

Cloud darted in when he saw his opening, snatched a phone, and dialed all the digits on the calling card that he'd already memorized. It didn't even ring twice before it was picked up. "Hi, Mom," he said breathlessly.

_"Cloud!"_ He could hear his mother's smile through the phone and it was worth it, all the boredom of waiting in line and all the current chaos. _"Sweetheart, I've been waiting for your call. How are you doing?"_

"I'm okay. Are you okay? Do you have enough money this month?" Cloud tried to get the most essential questions answered before he wouldn't be able to hear anymore.

_"I'm fine,"_ she said brightly, and he could figure out the answer from that alone; already he started trying to figure out how to stretch his paycheck, already strained to the maximum. _"I've been in the general store all afternoon; I didn't want to miss you. I do wish you could have gotten leave this month for the holidays. I haven't seen you in so long that I almost didn't recognize you in that last picture you sent to me."_

Cloud shoved his elbow into the midsection of someone who crashed into him and clutched the phone tighter to his ear. "I wish I could have gotten holiday leave too, Mom." He flattened himself against the wall to avoid another collision. "I'll send you another picture if you want. My friend took another roll."

_"How kind of him. I'm so glad you've made a friend there, Cloud. Is he a nice boy? Does he look out for you?"_

Cloud chanced a look over his shoulder, trying to find Zack. It wasn't difficult; all he had to do was trace the violence of the brawl back to its epicenter. "Yeah, Mom. He's really nice and he helps me out a lot. I learn a lot from him."

Another trooper loomed up and threw a punch at him; Cloud dodged and clocked him with the phone. It jolted out of his grasp and he grappled wildly to get it back before someone could rip it off the wall; the fight had gone past fists and feet, and anything that wasn't nailed down securely or could be pried up handily was a weapon. A chair flew overhead; case in point.

He just managed to catch the end of a sentence when he put the receiver of the phone back to his ear. _"—would really appreciate it."_

"What?" he asked breathlessly. "Sorry, could you say that again, Mom?"

_"I said I'd really appreciate it if you could send me a picture of your friend as well. I'd love to see what he's like."_

About twenty feet away, Zack was laughing like a madman and swinging the fake palm tree Cloud had hidden behind earlier in a wide circle. As Cloud watched, he knocked down three troopers and two third class SOLDIERS in the same arc. Fake potting soil flew everywhere. When the plastic trunk broke in half, Zack tossed it aside and went for the fire extinguisher on the wall.

_"Cloud?"_

"Um, sure," he managed to get out before he crouched down on the floor, squeezing himself as small as he could. "I'll try to get a picture of him when he's not too busy. He really liked the cookies you sent."

_"Oh, that's good. Cloud, it's awfully noisy on your end."_

"I know. Some of the guys are just messing around. Listen, Mom, my card's almost up. I'll call you at the usual time next month, okay? And I'm sending you some of my paycheck in the mail."

_"You don't have to do that, Cloud."_

"I want to Mom. Just, just—" Someone nearly stepped on him. Cloud groped outwards and dropped a phonebook on the foot. "Just take care of yourself, okay?"

_"All right. But I'd rather have the pictures. I miss you, sweetheart."_

"Me too, Mom."

_"Cloud, I love you. Be careful."_

At least the confusion was good for something; he could reply without anyone listening and jeering that he was a pussy. "I love you too, Mom. Bye."

He dropped the phone and rolled away just in time. A large body fell where he had been. The phone dangled and swung on its cord; Cloud didn't bother trying to hang it up because someone would probably just yank it off the wall in a few seconds. He could see flashes of blue uniforms where the first class SOLDIER officers were finally wading in to break up the brawl. Here and there were other flashes of a different blue where the Turks were joining in, although Cloud couldn't tell if they were helping the SOLDIERS or just egging the whole thing on.

Cloud gave up on remembering any of the maneuvers his instructors had shown him, and simply kicked out randomly and went for the groin when appropriate as he tried to work his way free. Thirty feet from the door, there was a metallic crunch and he didn't have to look back to know that the phone had finally come off the wall. Twenty feet from the door, there was an even louder crash and he glanced long enough to see someone had knocked over a vending machine. Ten feet, and he dropped to his knees and crawled through people's legs the rest of the way. He was almost there when someone squarely blocked his path and knocked him back on his ass, a boot planting itself on his chest to hold him down. Cloud clawed at the leg coming out of the boot and when that had no discernible effect, he looked up.

From nearly six and a half feet up, the second class SOLDIER looked down. He studied Cloud with a vaguely interested look, the detached curiosity of someone at the brink of pinning a rare insect. It was as though he had never dealt with this sort of thing before and was mentally considering the best course of action. He was still involved in the complicated process of reviewing all possible ways to deal with someone the size of Cloud, when suddenly there was a nasty crunching sound and his mental processes were obviously reversing themselves hastily to decide how to deal with someone the size of Zack. Zack didn't give him much of a chance, and he went down with another crunch.

"Hi, Cloud." Zack caught up with him, grabbed him under the armpits, and hoisted him up. "Let's run like hell, okay?"

"Okay," Cloud said as Zack dragged him along, eventually letting Zack just pick him up and throw him over one shoulder when it seemed to get them moving faster. "And, um, thanks."

"No problem. And you know, just tell me you want to use the phone next time and I'll set you up in Seph's office. He won't care."

"It's a long distance call," Cloud managed to get out as he jounced up and down on Zack's shoulder.

"Look, if he didn't kill me when I ran up the three thousand gil tab for the Shinra Super Slutz hotline on his phone, he's not gonna do anything about a call to Nibelheim, even if it is in the middle of friggin' nowhere." Zack swatted him affectionately on the ass. "You worry too much. And I saw you slam that guy with the phone. That was a nice move there, I'm real proud of you."

"Thanks," Cloud said, and hung on for dear life as Zack swerved around a corner at high speed. "Um, shouldn't we be going in the opposite direction?"

"Nope," Zack said cheerfully. "C'mon, you're coming out with me for the evening. I know a great bar where we can maybe get some food, get a drink, definitely get another fight. A little one like this only got me warmed up. Get the weekend started in style, you know?"

"I don't have leave," Cloud said. "And it's Wednesday."

"I have to start early if I want to get any kind of buzz going," Zack explained. "Whatever. And no problem, I'll fix things with your CO."

"You _are_ my CO," Cloud pointed out.

"Handy, that," Zack said, and then they were out the doors and heading into Midgar's train station, thousands of possibilities opening up ahead of them in a tangle of noise and dirty streets and lurid fluorescent scrawl. "Don't worry. Don't I take good care of you?"

"Yeah," Cloud said, and he couldn't seem to stop smiling. "You always do."


End file.
